Running Away
by Celestial-Flame-Dragon
Summary: Everyone runs away from something, the loss of a loved one, their horrific past, secrets best left covered, yet what do they run towards? Nalu, Gruvia, Gajevy, Jerza


It was early Monday morning, and Lucy was awoken by the sound of Ms. Supetto calling up to her, telling her to get dressed for school. She groaned, pulling the blankets over her head, wishing she could stay in bed for just a little longer.

It was her first day at her new school, but she knew she wouldn't be spending a lot of time here. This was just the next of all the different schools she had gone to in the last seven years. She half-heartedly rolled out of bed, groggily pulling off her pajamas and picking up her new uniform. She looked at it for a second, wondering how she would look with it on before slipping into the tight, plain white t-shirt and black-watch plaid skirt. She stood in front of her mirror for a while, fixing her hair and making herself look as nice as possible, though she wondered why she even bothered making a good first impression. In a few months, or even weeks, she would leave, join another school for the millionth time, and never see these people again.

"Hurry up, Lucy or you'll have to go to school hungry!" Ms. Supetto called from down in the kitchen.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Lucy shouted down the hall, grabbing her phone and flying down two steps at a time.

She grabbed a few of the pancakes Ms. Supetto had made, biting into one while rushing out the door. She barely stopped to chew or to sling her bag over her shoulder. She only lived a few blocks down from the school, and was grateful she could walk there. The journey took her past some shops and restaurants, and when passing a small corner store on her left, she heard the recognizable sounds of fighting and yelling. She picked up the pace, avoiding the commotion and not wanting to get involved. Once she had a few more buildings between her and the quarrel, she turned back to see two boys brawling in the middle of the street. As if that wasn't odd enough, one of the boys had a head of wild pink hair, and the other was shirtless. Lucy's eyes widened, and she turned away, blushing brightly at what she'd seen.

After a few minutes, she arrived at the school, gazing up at the huge building above her; Magnolia High. This was by far the biggest school she had attended.

It had been the middle of her first semester of sophomore year when Lucy had left her old school, and that was the longest she'd stayed at any one school since… That happened. Lucy returned her thoughts to the school in front of her, not wanting to bring up any bad memories.

Lucy had only been in Magnolia for a week since her dad had moved them _again_. He'd been moving them around because of "work", or so he claimed, for the last few years. But she knew enough to figure out that that wasn't the truth, and she knew it wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

As soon as Lucy stepped foot into the school, she realized that she didn't know her way around, which meant she had no clue as to where the main office was. she looked around desperately, spotting another student and asking her for directions. She brought Lucy to the main office, and dropped her off inside. Once the other student left, she sat down in the little waiting room, took out her book, and started reading.

She had barely the time to find her page and start reading before she heard a voice.

"Hello!"Lucy took her eyes off the pages and looked up to see a beautiful, white-haired woman talking to her.

…

"You must be Lucy Heartfillia. Please follow me." The woman said with a cheery smile.

Lucy just nodded, lowering her eyes.

"I'm Mirajane Strauss, but you can just call me Mira" she continued, turning around and walking to the back.

Lucy quietly followed behind her into the the office room, where she was met with a short, energetic old man.

"Hi i'm Principal Makarov Dreyar." he said, extending his hand. Lucy shyly grabbed it and shook it. He held out two pieces of paper, and she took them. "Here is your schedule and a map of the school, Mira will bring you to your first class." He smiled and nodded at Mira.

Lucy quietly thanked him, and followed Mira into the hallway.

"May I see your schedule, Lucy?" Mira asked, holding out an empty hand.

Lucy handed it over, and Mira looked it over before looking back and smiling.

"It looks like you have algebra first period. It's down the hall, fourth door on the right." She said, pointing down the hallway in front of her. "And.. don't worry if you get lost, it happens to everyone" she added with her warm smile.

As they were walking, Mira gave Lucy the usual run-downs of the school rules, expectations, and why this school is "uniquely different from any other!". It was stuff she had heard before, in the dozen other schools. After a few minutes, they reached the classroom door and Mira concluded her spiel.

"Alright. That's all for now. Have a great day, and make sure to stop by and say hello every now and then." Mira smiled and patted Lucy on the back, turning and leaving her with her schedule, map, and a closed door. Lucy reached for the doorknob and slowly turned it, feebly pushing the door open and cautiously stepping in.

When she entered, most of the seats had been filled, but she spotted an empty seat at the back and took it. She got out her book and read for the last few minutes until the bell rang, signalling the start of class. Two boys ran into the door while trying to enter, and lucy immediately recognized them from the fight on her way to school this morning. It was the pink haired boy and the raven haired boy… who must have been the shirtless one. Lucy blushed at this thought and looked back down at her book trying to focus on the words. The teacher entered the room and the class quieted down.

"Class, we have a new student." He turned toward Lucy and held his hand out, pointing at her. "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

Lucy stood up and looked around at the class from under her bangs. "Hi, my name is Lucy." She said quietly, barely getting the whole sentence out before sitting down.

"Welcome Lucy! You can call me Wakabe. I will be your algebra teacher this year." The teacher responded with a smile.

For the rest of the class Lucy remained quiet and tried her best to pay attention to what was being taught, but she had already learned all this material in her old school and was bored by it. She eventually gave up and hid her book between the pages of her textbook. The bell rang, startling Lucy from her daydream about the characters in her story.

The rest of the class filed out as Lucy sleepily packed up her things. As she was getting up to leave, Wakabe said "Lucy, can I talk to you for a minute?"

She nodded and walked over to his desk as the last students closed the door behind them.

"I noticed that you didn't participate much in class today," he stated blankly. Lucy thought she was in trouble for dozing off and her eyes shifted lazily to the white tiles beneath her feet.

"Yet," he continued, "When I asked you a question you answered it perfectly." He pressed his lips together and looked at her over the papers in his hands. Sighing, he said "I know it's hard to change schools, and that you may have learned some of this material, but you still need to try. If you ever _do_ need help, you can always come to me. Just… don't make it a regular thing. I already have enough to worry about." His eyes moved to the little window in the classroom door, gazing over the two that were duking it out in the street earlier today.

Lucy stayed quiet throughout the entire exchange, until she was allowed to leave. As she walked out of the room, she looked at her schedule and saw that she had study hall next. She arrived late due to losing her way multiple times, and when she finally showed up she was told she could go to the library during this time. She quickly turned back around and walked to the library. Lucy was so overjoyed that she had access to such a large library that she almost smiled. Almost… She spotted some lounging chairs in the far corner and decided that would be a good place to peacefully read her book, so she walked and took the seats. When she went to sit down, a blue-haired bundle of energy leaped at her, and Lucy jumped back in surprise, tripping over the chairs. But before she hit the ground she was caught by, or, more accurately, fell on top of, a tall dark-haired guy with piercings all over his face. He didn't seem like the type of guy to be in a library, or even a school for that matter, and Lucy backed away from him, turning back to the blue-haired blur. It was a girl, and she was small and energetic, seeming to be around Lucy's age.

"You're the new girl, right?" she asked Lucy when she caught her eye.

Lucy nodded slightly, still recovering from her fall.

"She asked you a question, so answer it, bunny girl." The pierced man said gruffly.

The girl rolled her eyes and looked up at Lucy with soft eyes. "Just ignore Gajeel," she said,"He acts tough but is really just a big softy." She giggled and punched his arm lightly.

Lucy raised an eyebrow at this and looked quizzically at Gajeel. "Bunny girl?..." she quietly asked.

"The way you jumped when you saw the shrimp." he nodded his chin at the girl. "It reminded me of a bunny." He answered nonchalantly.

Lucy looked at the "shrimp" with a still-raised eyebrow. "He gives everyone animal nicknames" she said, smiling and shaking her head.

"I do not"

"You sure about that?" she said. "Then, what about Natsu the Salamander, Loki the Lion, or Erza th-"

"Alright, we get it, we get it." he said sharply.

They heard a whipping sound behind them, followed by a voice saying "WHIPPED", and their faces turning bright red. Lucy turned to the source of the disturbance, to see that once again, it was the raven-haired boy, clothed this time.

"Gray!" Gajeel shouted angrily, but was ignored when the newly named stranger stopped in front of Lucy.

"You're the new kid in my algebra class, right?" he asked. "Lucy was it?"

Lucy nodded and side-stepped, trying to leave before she was questioned any further.

Gray stepped with her, blocking her exit, though not in a malicious way. "How about I show you around some time?" He said cooly, running his hand through her hair, making her uncomfortable.

"Don't you already have Juvia, Gray?" Gajeel interrupted "Unless you broke her heart in which case …"

"...!" Gray yelled leaping at Gajeel.

The petite girl rolled her eyes and smiled at Lucy. "Hey, Erza!" she said to no one in particular. Lucy looked around for this "Erza". When she looked back to the two boys she saw that they had stopped fighting, with their arms around the other's back looking like best friends. Lucy was very surprised at this reaction, and knew that whoever this "Erza" was, Lucy either wanted to stay out of her way or become their best friend. The blue haired girl laughed loudly at the boys and they quickly realized they had been played.

"Not funny, shrimp. I'm leaving." announced Gajeel as he stood up and brushed off his pants.

"Humf." Levy responded with a flip of her hair as Gajeel walked out of the library with Gray.

She was thinking about her new friends as she got her books from her locker, and when she walked out of the school building, she saw them run past. They were all clothed in athletic wear, save for some of the boys who remained shirtless. However, much to Lucy's surprise, a red-haired girl ran in front of her in nothing more than a sports bra and running shorts. Levy ran past, lagging a bit behind the others, and called to Lucy,"You should join the Cross-Country team/ It's lots of fun!" Lucy just blankly shook her head and shifted her gaze away. She didn't want to get any more attached to her. It would make it easier when she had to move.

* * *

While walking back home Lucy passed the store where she saw Gray and the other boy fighting. She saw that it was, infact, a petit cafe called "Fairy tail". Lucy thought that she might want to go there for lunch one day, as it looked like a nice place and she saw a few people relaxing outside.

Once she got home she went upstairs. She quietly read her book up there wishing to be a world with these characters, a world filled with magic, monsters to defeat, enemies to fight, and friends to save. She had already read the first series and was rereading it for the third time while waiting for the next book to come out. She was incredibly interested in how fate caused the main characters to get into trouble, yet the intelligent female lead would try and make a plan to get them out. It was an intelligent female and a not so intelligent male this time. She fell asleep with the book in her hands. Ms. Supetto came in to call Lucy to dinner but saw that she had fallen asleep, she tucked her in. She said a silent prayer asking for Lucy to be happy and that this would be their last move.


End file.
